


Doubt

by princessofthedeadsheep



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Alternate Universe - Family, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, BAU family, Families of Choice, Family Feels, Gen, Mind Games, Mind Meld, Pack Family, Supernatural Elements, Team as Family, though not of the vulcan kind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-18
Updated: 2015-05-04
Packaged: 2018-01-19 19:27:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 17,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1481257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princessofthedeadsheep/pseuds/princessofthedeadsheep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The victimology seemed impossibly random, and yet was clearly not...the BAU was baffled, before long Reid is kidnapped. Soon after, those taken return, but they are not like they used to be... </p><p>Mildly supernatural elements, I guess, but it could be scifi if you want to look at it that way instead. Gen/family fic</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Another Day, Another Case

**Author's Note:**

> Alright. So I've had this idea for a while now, and I can safely say that it's time to get it out. I cannot guarantee it'll be that great- parts are a little shaky as I write them- but I do have chapters written out pretty far in front of this. I just have to type them. This fic will be Gen, and it will borrow from several authors. I have received permission from each of them and I will cite each fic as I use them, probably at the end of the chapter, with a link. This chapter doesn't have any though, so it shouldn't be a problem here.
> 
> Disclaimer: I would love to own Criminal Minds and get to see all these beautiful people in real life, but I can't so I clearly don't own it.

Doubt. A seed, once planted, never really went away. Dr. Spencer Reid did know, on some level, that these people cared for him. Yet on another, there was always that doubt.

People he loved left.

That, to him, was a simple truth that he could not avoid. The people he loved always left him, and he couldn't help that, and some part of him always expected them to leave like Gideon had, like his father had, or worse-the way his mother had. He knew it wasn't her fault that she wasn't always there when he needed her, but that didn't help him when he needed it, and only served to fuel that doubt. He had no idea that it would make him such an attractive target for their next unsub.

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"Our next case is in Athens, Tennessee. Peter McDavis went missing while walking his dog last Thursday, and was held captive for 18 hours before he was found lying dead at the side of the road three blocks from his home. Cause of death was cardiac arrest, believed to be caused by electric currents which came through the nodes attached on either side of his head, given the burn patterns they left." JJ flashed the pictures onto the screen, showing first the victim, an older white man, then his dead body, which appeared to have been gently laid on a softer patch of the ground. Another picture zoomed into his face to show the pattern of the burn marks, which were oval shaped and ran down the side of his face. The largest were at the temples, and next to each eye there was a slightly smaller burn. Along the cheeks two longer but skinnier ones rested along the curve of the nose. About two centimeters from the corner of his mouth rested the smallest burn, almost unnoticeable.

"Four days later, in Dayton, Trisha Macintyre went missing on her way to work from her favorite coffee shop." JJ flashed the picture of a middle aged Latino woman "She was found the next day with the same burn patterns as McDavis, and it is believed she was alive for only twelve hours after her abduction. She was dumped three blocks from her office, cause of death was an aneurism."

"Two days later, Natalie Turner went missing while walking to the Tennessee College of Applied Technology. She was only held for about 5 hours before her death. She was found just outside of the college campus boundaries." The young black woman stared back at them, her eyes open in the picture of her body. "She had the same burn patterns on her face, same cause of death as Macintyre.

"Just a day after that, Justin Anderson was abducted on his way home from work, he is still missing, and just four hours ago Angela Paxton was abducted on her way to work." JJ finished.

"Any reason besides the death count make them think that these are connected?" Hotch asked.

"At each abduction site, a large white card with a single word in black letters was found. McDavis was Greed, Macintyre was arrogance, Turner was betrayal, Anderson was depression, and Paxton was adoration." JJ put up the pictures of the different abduction sites as they'd been found.

"So these are punishments for having undesirable characteristics?" Morgan asked.

"Well electrocution is one way to make people change." Rossi said.

"Justin Anderson diagnosed with reactive depression, but he was the only one with any type of mental illness." Reid looked up from his furious flipping of the files as Garcia spoke.

"The coroner's report says that there was a decrease in the severity of the burns from one victim to the next, and there were no traces of any toxins or drugs, though there was a needle mark in their shoulders." He said.

"So what, the unsub is trying to make them live through the torture longer, but somehow it's backfiring on him?" Morgan asked.

"The burns aren't consistent with the amount of electricity they'd need for torture or death, and there doesn't appear to be a lot of burns on the bodies." Prentiss pointed out. "So maybe torture isn't this unsub's goal."

"Regardless, this unsub is escalating. Wheels up in twenty." Hotch said.


	2. Another Death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This part has yet to be beta'd but in the interest of giving you guys something, I thought I'd post this anyway and make any changes later. So keep in mind that this isn't perfect and may change. Sorry if it seems a bit rushed, but I really want to get to the juicy part! After that, hopefully I'll be able to get out chapters more quickly.

"This unsub is organized." Rossi says. "The victims appear to be ones of opportunity, but in reality the unsub likely has stalked them all before." They were on the jet, having just sat down to start going over the case.

"He probably even has a list. Who needs to be hit, why they fit his needs. He'd be able to tell us everyone he used. The way the bodies are positioned show signs of remorse." Morgan says.

"Maybe the unsub doesn't mean to kill them." Reid said, looking thoughtful. "The burns get less and less severe with each victim, and the newest victims are younger, healthier, and therefore more likely to bounce back from injury. Maybe the reason the unsub is lightening the currents is because they're trying to find an amount that won't kill the victims."

"If that's the case, then maybe that's why we haven't gotten the bodies of the newest victims yet. They may have found a way to keep them alive." Prentiss pointed out.

"But there is no guarantee of that, and he might still take more victims, so we need to act quickly. Rossi and Morgan will go to the most recent disposal site, Prentiss and Reid will interview the Paxtons and Andersons. They're already at the station." With their assignments done, they settled in for the rest of the flight.

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Reid, Prentiss, JJ and Hotch all entered the station to be greeted by a slightly cold environment. They all instantly recognized it as the reluctance to allow the FBI in. That slight territorial edge permeated the looks they were given and the attitudes of one or two of the detectives. The detective who greeted them seemed to be far less bothered, at least.

"I'm Detective Suttcliffe." He introduced himself.

"SSA Aaron Hotchner." Hotch held out his hand to be shaken. "And these are SSAs Emily Prentiss, Dr. Spencer Reid, and Jennifer Jareau." They all shook hands with him.

"Glad you guys could come. This murderer is getting more and more impatient and I'm afraid we're going to lose someone else all too soon."

"Hopefully we can get this unsub before there are many more deaths. Where should we set up?"

"In the room over there. It's really comfortable and I figured you'd be able to spread out more there than in the conference room. Plus it has a couch and a fridge." He added the last sentence in a lowered voice with a hint of a smile. They headed to the place he had gestured to which was already piled with the boxes of files they had collected. Half an hour later Reid and Prentiss came back from the interviews, both carrying cups of coffee.

"We asked about the word that was left at the scene. According to Jennifer Paxton, adoration is what she'd consider her sister's only vice. She tends to adore people who she thinks accomplish great things, regardless of how they do it. It's gotten her into sticky situations." Prentiss said as she broke the seal on a bottle of coke.

"The Anderson's said that Justin has been struggling with depression since he was about fifteen." Reid put in, pulling out a chair at the table as he looked at the files sitting there. "He hit a rough patch recently and decided to go back to therapy." Just then Morgan and Rossi came back.

"Well, our unsub certainly gets around." Morgan pulled out a chair next to Reid and plopped down, stealing a sip from the coffee Reid had brought. "The time taken with the victims as well as the distance between the crime scenes show that this unsub has a lot of time on their hands."

"So that means he is either unemployed or he has a job that provides a lot of mobility." Rossi said as he went over to the fridge and pulled out a piece of pie that had been stashed there earlier. They were about to sit down and go further into the profile when Detective Suttcliffe came in.

"We've got another body. Justin Anderson's body was just found outside of his parent's home." The detective sighed. "Definitely the same."

"Reid, Morgan, go to the crime scene. The rest of us will finish the profile."

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Justin Anderson's body had been placed between two beds of flowers, and his eyes were still open. He had the burns on the side of his face like the others but they were even less obvious than the last two. "It looks like you were right about the burns. They just keep getting lighter." Morgan said as he observed the boy's face.

"Hopefully that means we'll start having live people instead of dead ones." Detective Sutcliffe said. "I know the families would prefer it. The Anderson's are pretty broken up about finding their son on their front lawn."

"Did they see or hear anything?" Reid asked, looking over as he bent on the other side of the body to study the burns up close himself. Sutcliffe shook his head.

"Unfortunately, they weren't home at the time. Since it was midway through a weekday, next to no one was home." They continued talking about the body disposal unaware of the unexpected visitors who were watching not very far away.

The little girl was watching, and though her eyes could not be seen beneath her curtain of dark hair, the way she moved her head gave the impression she was scanning the crowd of cops with great interest.

"Do you see anyone?" The large man behind her asked, his own face set like stone as he kept an eye on the area around him. The little girl giggled in response.

"That one." She pointed at Reid, she watched as the colors bounced and whirled, some dark, some bright, but none so important as the black that shimmied near the heart. She giggled again. "Yes, yes perfect! The best match yet! Oh I bet he'll be the perfect one! We have to get that one!"

"The one next to Justin?" She nodded. Then she paused. "Why is Justin like that? Shouldn't he be in a hospital?" She turned to the man, her little face, the picture of an innocent child's that any artist would dream of, and the man found himself shifting on his feet.

"They're going to take him there now. He'll be alright. we should go now." he said. They turned and left, the girl still frowning. She wasn't sure she believed the man, but if he said it, it must be true. She believed in him after all. He loved her. He wouldn't lie about something so important.

Right?


	3. Another Abduction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! So we've finally reached the more juicy bits. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up the pace a bit, instead of going with this 17th/18th of the month pace. At any rate, I'm glad to have this ready for you, and in the next few chapters I'll start to introduce different stories. Not yet, and possibly not the chapter after this one, but the one after that. It'll be fun. I hope that you all enjoy this next part!

The profile wasn't ready by the time they got back. It wasn't ready the next day, either. In that time, it seemed that the unsub was waiting. There was no sign of Angela and Justin's body did not reveal anything they didn't already know. It was getting exceedingly frustrating and they found themselves going out to recover they ground they had already managed. It was for this reason that Reid and Morgan found themselves heading back towards one of the previous abduction sites, discussing parts of the profile with each other and what they might possibly find at the crime scene.

"Trying to figure out the contradictions in this profile is difficult. There's a disconnect between the unsub's ideas and the disposal of the bodies."

"Something here doesn't quite add up." Reid agreed. They arrived at the scene of the first abduction to find that things had been moved, and other changes had been made.

"Has anyone been reported to be moving around here?" Reid asked.

"No, no one should have been in this alley, it's been blocked off. I'll look over here to see what else's changed." Morgan moved away somewhat excited, hopeful things were beginning to go their way, leaving Reid alone to examine the very front of the alley.

Reid looked around and found that the changes were more cosmetic then anything. The trashcans, for instance, had been moved only slightly, but the real change was that they had been cleaned. They sparkled. They were still in similar positions. They still held trash. But they sparkled. Reid leaned forward to see if they were the same cans or if they'd been changed. And it was his leaning forward that made him miss the sight if the man that came up behind him. The man swept Reid off of his feet before Reid had realized anything was wrong. The man clamped a hand over Reid's mouth, and yanking at the gun at Reid's side, pulled it from his holster and pressed it into his stomach.

No words were spoken, but Reid easily understood the threat. He ceased fighting back, deciding to take a more analytical approach, and wait for a better opportunity. The man shoved Reid into the back of a large black panel van and used Reid's own handcuffs to attach him to what appeared to be a safety or stabilizing pole of some kind, it ran sideways along the van, and it forced Reid to kneel in place. A piece of cloth was shoved into his mouth before a needle injected a small amount of a drug into his system. Even so, Reid felt his eyes closing against his will. The unsub made sure to securely shut the door now that Reid was captured.

He was a big, burly, tanned man. He left only one thing, as he always did. A long, slender note with a single word in black lettering written across it.

That word was doubt.

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Reid awoke in a room with the other victim who had yet to be found. She looked at him with wide eyes. They were each chained to a portion of the wall, but were otherwise free to move. It looked a bit like a dungeon in the dim light of the single bulb that descended into the room. On the other wall there was a doorway through which Reid could distantly see stairs. The door wasn't shut. There was no point in shutting it when they were trapped regardless.

"Are you okay?" Reid asked Angela. She nodded shakily.

"They haven't done anything to me so far." She said. She looked around nervously and then whispered. "But the guy who was with me before was taken after the girl was done with him. I think he was dead."

"The girl?" asked Reid, but any answer was cut off by the sound of the door at the end of the hallway opening. They both turned to look as the man descended down the stairs. Beside him, a young girl was skipping down the stairs, only stopping when the man picked her up. It was difficult to tell what she looked like, the view obscured by the darkness of the hallway.

"Don't skip down the stairs, you'll fall." He told her. Despite the words, his tone suggested that he was angry, though the girl either did not realize or ignored it. She continued to skip down the dark hallway and into the room. It was difficult to make out her features even in the light; though he could tell her hair was dark and she had a full little mouth with the chubby cheeks of youth under a pudgy nose. Her eyes were shadowed by the hair that hung into her face. The man wore a simple black shirt that had small holes and paint on it. He wore faded jeans that had to be years old. He wore a hat over his head that blocked a great deal of the light from his face, and stood directly between Reid and the light, making it even more difficult to discern his features. The little girl moved further into the small room, her own jeans and sparkling tinker bell t-shirt coming into the sharp relief as she turned toward Reid. She smiled at him, and it seemed to be both kind and genuine.

"I mean no harm." She spoke quietly, and somewhat distantly, as though he was hearing her with an echo, though her voice was too quiet to produce one. "I only mean to help you. But my control is not enough yet. Yes…I must try to help more…" She went over to where the girl was sitting, eyeing her warily. "Do not worry, it will not hurt." She smiled. "I have discovered the problem. You shall be fine, I promise. No harm shall come to you while I give you this gift."

She placed her fingers in the same formation as the burn marks from before. She spoke in a voice that was more mature sounding, though that ring of innocence was still present. "I have seen your heart, and I have seen your greatest obstacle to happiness and I am here to free you from it. You possess something that others love but that holds you back. Adoration. It holds you back because those you adore are bad for you. They step all over you to get their ways. I will show you…what it could be like…what you could be like…what they could be like…what they are…" The girl and Angela seemed to float into a trance. Reid tried to move forward, but found his path blocked by both the chains and the man who had kidnapped him.

"Stay back." He hissed. "Interference means death." He didn't specify whose death, but Reid would bet his own. So Reid stayed back and watched. He could almost see the electricity flow from the fingertips of the girl to the other's head and he tried to figure out a reason for it. Just as there appeared to be burns marking Angela, the electricity stopped. The child's hands dropped. They both looked slightly stunned, but the child stumbled back into the arms of their captor.

"It is complete. She is done. She will be better than all the others. She will live the best of those so far." She smiled giddily. "I finally figured it out."

"Very good." Was all the man said.

"And now all the rest shall be better than before." She turned to Reid. "There will be a few more tests before we try you." She informed him. "I want to make sure I make yours perfect." She turned around and raced away, leaving the man behind. The man pulled out the keys for the wall cuffs and unlocked Angela's restraints. The man picked up the girl and holding her bridle style, took her away.


	4. Another Surprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is a bit late. I was on vacation and was too exhausted for writing. Now things are going to be getting more interesting! Nothing much on Reid in this chapter, but don't worry that will be changing soon. Sorry if the writing toward the end isn't as good as usual. I wasn't feeling it, if you know what I mean.
> 
> On another note, just today another fanfic author got really upset when she found out her fic had a tvtropes page. I get why she was upset (mostly) but I was also surprised. Probably because I wouldn't mind if someone did that for one of my fics and frankly, instead of getting angry at errors, I'd probably laugh at them hysterically. Just goes to show different people have different reactions to that sort of thing, I guess. I was, however, surprised that they refused to take down the page at her request. She is the author and if she doesn't want her story to be there, I would think they'd be nice enough to remove it. That I stand with her on whole heartedly, and because they aren't taking it down she's thinking about restricting access to her fic. I don't think it's right to make any artist feel the need to limit access to their work because they are being unfairly treated.
> 
> Enough of that, though. Onto the fic!

They didn't know where to find Reid. Morgan had searched high and low for any sign of Reid, and they had canvased the neighborhood only to come up with nothing. No one had seen anything, just as before. He had disappeared without a trace, and the only thing they knew for sure was that their unsub had taken him. They were rehashing old leads and getting nowhere when Detective Sutcliffe came to give them the news.

"We got a call, Angela Paxton. She's alive." The detective said as he appeared in the doorway of the conference room.

"Where is she?" Hotch asked immediately.

"She was found sitting on her sister's front porch. You're gonna wanna go out there."

"Prentiss, you're with me." Hotch immediately responded. They headed out to the SUVs quickly, their minds on Reid and what this could mean for him.

"Why do we need to go there?" Prentiss asked. Sutcliffe sighed.

"Because Angela Paxton is currently delirious and talking nonsense. When you can get her to talk, that is." He shook his head. "She refuses to go to a doctor saying it'll ruin her and she'll never be okay again, and in the interests of keeping her sister happy, Miss Paxton is refusing us from taking her sister from her property, insisting that anything that needs to be done can be done from her home, and asking we keep any police presence minimal."

"Well it will be better if Angela is comfortable, especially if she is delirious." Prentiss spoke up. "It could minimize her confusion, and she'll be more likely to answer any questions posed to her."

"I hope you're right." Was all Detective Sutcliffe had to say on the matter.

They arrived at the house of Jennifer Paxton and saw that there were quite a few cars parked outside the suburban house. Before they reached the door they found it thrown open, not by Jennifer, but rather by Angela.

"Hello!" She said rather brightly. Jennifer appeared behind her sister, looking alarmed, only seconds after she flung open the door. Angela was obviously not alright. Her eyes were blown wide open, her smile looked oddly vague, she had visible burns on her face, and her she didn't seem able to stay still for more than a second. She was whirling away from the door seconds after she had thrown it open, appearing to suddenly take interest in one of her sister's vases on the other side of the well decorated living room.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting her to pop up like that." Jennifer looked quite shaken. "She has been so quiet for the last ten or so minutes I wasn't prepared. Come in, come in." She ushered them in, not bothering to regain her composure. Once the door was shut behind them, she immediately steered them to the couch that was long enough to fit the three of them comfortably. They observed the young woman leaning forward with great intent at a vase she had likely seen before.

"Angela honey? There are some people here to talk to you."

"FBI Agents." Angela immediately corrected, and her voice sounded very off now. It held a very breezy, dreamlike quality, as though she couldn't get in the depth of her words. She continued to stare forward at the vase. "Yes, yes. The one that the other one is a part of. His family. Yes, I believe that's right." The smile that lit her face became softer then, a little less intense, as though she were fond of something. "I broke this vase once." She turned to them, her eyes not looking at anything in particular, and allowed her sister, who was looking very confused, to guide her to the small couch opposite them.

"You've never broken that vase, Angela." She said in a puzzled voice.

"Oh, yes I have. Not here, not now, but some when, some where. I find it so intriguing to think of how breaking it changed it, when I did break it. Maybe I should try that sometime…I bet the art would be beautiful." She turned, looking vaguely in their direction, almost looking between Prentiss and Hotch. "Your friend is alive and well. He will be fine."

"How do you know who our friend is?" Prentiss asked her quietly.

"Why I met him. Briefly." She looked away again, her eyes trailing along the room. They waited for her to continue, and just as Hotch was about to ask another question, she did. "He was kind. We only met for a brief time but he was good to me. Then she came in, and I remember little after that. I do know it will be a bit before he is seen again. He is the ultimate. There are tests to be done. She wouldn't want to hurt the ultimate experiment."

"She?" Hotch jumped in.

"The little one." Angela waved her hand slowly, as though swatting a fly in slow motion. She began to hum the song she remembered from when she was with the girl. The beat was solemn, the words even more so. She smiled sadly, staring distantly at something they could not see. She began to sing, but made up her own words. "The child's touch, runs through much. He will always protect her, cause she's his little prin-cess." She repeated the song, over and over, ignoring all other questions as her voice faded out, and she began to stare at the wall opposite them without response. They left more confused than before and wondering what this meant for Reid.

"So our only living victim is one step away from completely insane, if not already insane." Morgan said after hearing Prentiss and Hotch's recap of the interview. He leaned back in his chair, running a hand over his face. "That sure is comforting."

"Whether she is aware of it or not, she did give us some useful information." Prentiss pointed out. "We now know that Reid is part of some sort of experiment, and that there is an end goal. Our unsub is female, and we may have more than one unsub, which is more likely since she described the unsub as a little girl. Any little girl would need the help of an adult to get this done. Then there's that song. I don't think she made that up from nothing. Nearly everything she said about her time with the unsub seemed to revolve around the little girl."

"That's true." Hotch said. "We're having the sister make note of anything she says about her abductor or what happened to her and the others."

"Has she said anything about this experiment they go through?" Rossi asked.

"Other than Reid being 'the ultimate experiment' and it starting with the little girl, nothing."

They talked more about what Angela had said, but it frankly, was not enough. They simply did not have enough information to get any solid lead on Reid or their unsub.

"Where could we possibly find this little girl? They have to be nearby but I think she's really the key to finding Reid, at this point." Morgan said.

"We'll have Garcia look up girls in this area who aren't in school and are only children." Hotch said at last. "It isn't a solid lead, but at least it's a place to start." Feeling restless, the whole team began to dig into researching the girls of the town. It was several hours later when the report came in.

"We have two more abductions." Sutcliffe came in. "Sid Kennedy and George Corners were abducted within two hours of each other, on opposite sides of the town."

"Prentiss, Rossi, you head to Sid Kennedy's abduction site. Morgan and I will head to George corners. JJ, talk to the families and see about them avoiding the public eye. We need to control how these abductions are released to the media. This escalation won't be taken well."

"I'll get right on it." JJ said, already planning the press release in her head. They headed their separate ways, and none would admit that they were grateful for this update. They all hoped it meant they'd be seeing Reid soon.


	5. Another Place, Same Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, new chapter! Somewhat on time even! I was having writer's block, but thankfully, I finally figured out the reason- I couldn't get myself into the proper point of view. Once I changed it to this way, things ran much smoother. This is actually one of my longer chapters, word count wise. How strange. At any rate, I hope you enjoy, and I'm delighted to inform you that Reid will be returning to the team in the upcoming chapter. Soon things will make sense. hopefully.

Reid had been revisited by the man shortly after Angela had been taken away. Reid had tried to talk to the man, but to no avail. The man had merely dropped some water and bread with cheese in front of Reid and left it there. Reid hadn't eaten for hours so he was hungry. Carefully, he began to eat and drink the water. He stopped the instant he began to feel tiredness creep in. His eyes felt heavier, but he hadn't ingested enough before whatever was in the meal could send him to sleep. Unfortunately, it was rather boring in the medieval dungeon look alike when all alone, and so Reid took to thinking about the few minute encounter that he had had with the unsubs.

The girl appeared to be the actual killer, though he doubted she was aware of it. She didn't seem to be aware of what she was doing exactly (or at least the results of what she was doing). She was clearly experimenting. She looked well taken care of, and appeared to be around the age of five or six, possibly seven if she was a bit small for her age. She trusted the man and looked to him as a caretaker but she hadn't referred to him in a familial way, though it may just not have come up.

The man on the other hand was very controlling. He did not ever look at the girl in a loving or even concerned manor. His face remained mostly expressionless, except for anger, which seemed to be a common occurrence. His body language was often tight, and he appeared to be the one who ran things- which of course made sense, since the child was not old enough to be in charge. He got the victims alone, without the girl, so did that mean he picked out who she experimented on, or did she tell him and he planned the capture? Either way, he did not involve her, though whether it was in concern for her safety or so he would be in the most control over how the kidnappings went, it was too early to say. Still, Reid leaned toward the latter option.

Then there were those experiments the girl was doing. She had talked about freeing Angela of her flaw of adoration. She had said she could show her the truth, as well as what could be and what could have been. How had she shown her? What had she done when she'd put her fingers on Angela's face? What had she done? He had seen the electricity flow through the fingers of the child into Angela's head, but how? Reid didn't have a clue. He started to search his mind for any article or thought that could connect him to what was happening. He thought of plenty of things that might connect, but frankly he found himself at a complete loss for the information, which was unusual. He had no idea where to start looking once he made his way through every remotely electrical thing he could think of off the bat. Maybe it went more advanced than that? But then how would the girl be able to wield it?

Reid didn't notice as his thoughts trailed off and he slid into sleep.

Almost directly above him the little girl sat, happily chowing down on chicken nuggets and french fries with a side of mustard while drinking a milkshake, all as though she hadn't eaten for a week. She was feeling a lot better after her nap, though she wasn't sure of when she'd be able to continue her work again. The girl wrote happily in a notebook that was covered in stickers of princesses and monster trucks and lizards and kittens about how the last experiment had gone. She dated it carefully, making sure she had them all written the way she had been taught to do. Careful to keep her mouth above the plate as she ate, she continued to eat with her right hand and wrote with her left.

_**The experiment today has gone really well. She has the best remembering of all of the subjects and stayed awake until a moment after the acclimation was done. This is the first time that's happened! I wasn't nearly so tired this time either! I think I finally figured out the right amount of memory to add. The man that I picked out earlier is in the basement but I think I'll wait so that I know I am getting it right. Instead I need to get two more to test on and I think that will be real fun. I have lots of energy so I'll do both tonight or tomorrow. At least one tonight, though. That will be smartest, I think.** _

She reread the entry again and was pleased. She made sure to use the important words she had been told to use, and she could write pretty neatly, and all in the lines! It had taken her a long while to be able to get that right.

The man came in and looked down at the report she had written. He nodded at it and gave her a pat on the head in what could have been an affectionate gesture.  
"Your writing has improved. I'm glad. Pretty soon you'll be writing at twice your grade level."

"What's a grade level?"

"Never mind." The man waved his hand to swat the question out of the air. The girl sighed but didn't bother to pursue the question. She had always been smart, or at least, that was what everyone said. She was smart, and she could talk well, and she was so cute, and so pretty, and weren't her parents lucky to have her? That's what everyone always said, at least. She remembered the times that they had called him her daddy. He wasn't her daddy. She didn't like people saying that. He was something else entirely. "So you think we should get two more to test on, huh?"

"Yeah. I need two more. That way I know that this new way works." She paused as she ate another fry. "You were the one that said that trials need to be run more than once to see if the results are right."

"So I did." He acknowledged. "Alright. Do you have any idea who you'll need or does it matter?"

"Boys. I need people around his age. That's it really. Race has never mattered on any of the subjects so I don't think it will now."

"Alright. I'll choose them, and I'll bring them back. I shouldn't be more than an hour. Do you want to watch a movie while I'm gone?"

"Yeah!" she looked up excitedly.

"I'll unlock the cabinet and you can pick one." She wasn't allowed a whole lot of TV. He was afraid that it would interfere with her abilities or that she'd become lazy. Or at least, that's what he said. He started the movie and she watched from the kitchen table, nearly finished her overly large meal, and she almost didn't notice the sounds of him leaving. When she heard a familiar clinking sound, she whipped around and shouted "Hey!" at him. He stuck his head back into the kitchen.

"That girl, did you send her back already?"

"Yes. I returned her to her sister while you were napping." The girl nodded, then returned her attention to the movie that was playing and ignored the returning clanking noises. She no longer wondered about what those noises were. They were merely the background of her life now. She was glad she didn't know, honestly. The man didn't seem to want to tell her. She watched the movie, moving to the living room when she was done with her meal and had put her dishes away. Curling on the couch, she allowed herself to drift into a fantastical world.

The man would go out and find her more subjects, as he called them, and she would do what she did, and help them the only way she could. Young she may have been, but she didn't like the way the world was. Still, she supposed she was lucky that the man was there for her. She'd probably have ended up in one of those awful orphanage places, where there were older kids who bullied you, where there wasn't enough food or beds and you could get hurt and no one would care. She didn't want to be there. She was glad the man had saved her. Even if she wasn't sure why, or how, she was glad. She knew he would not be late. Before the movie was complete, she heard the sounds of him returning home. Then she heard the grunts of exertion and the heavy movements as he carried the two new subjects down to the basement. He finished almost with the movie. She sighed. The movie credits began to roll.

It was time to help people, the only way she knew how.


	6. Another Reason To Worry

The man dropped Spencer off a block from the police station telling him to remain until he was found. He made his way there without much trouble, though he almost bumped into several people on the street before he found himself at the police station, where he placed himself into a corner of the building. The area was not very busy though, and no one paid him much mind.  


He stayed there for over an hour before JJ and Morgan came out of the police station, silent and thoughtful, off to go and get some food that no one felt like eating. JJ looked back at the station when she heard something, more of an automatic reaction than anything else, and nearly turned away completely before she registered what she had seen. Reid was curled into the building, his hands occasionally jerking against the wall and creating a very dull and trill sort of a thump as a ring on his finger hit the wall. She dropped her purse.  


“Spence.” She breathed, her mind blank as she saw him curled into the side of the building, his eyes glazed and distant. Abruptly Morgan turned around too. He hadn’t heard her, but he had heard the sound of her purse hitting the ground. “JJ, what-” then he saw Reid, and immediately he found himself running forward toward him. Reid’s face whipped towards them and a confused expression overtook him. It was clear that he had suffered the same fate as the other victims, and he was twice as confused. Reid shrunk away from the approaching Morgan, who immediately made an effort to control himself. It wouldn’t be good for Reid to have a panic attack or something because he couldn’t handle himself. JJ (who had taken a second to grab her purse, remembering that there were, in fact, things in there she would have difficulty living without, like her room key) was beside him in only a few more moments. Both stopped mere feet away from Reid and watched him watch them with glazed eyes. JJ sank to the ground, staring at him.  


“Spence? Is that you?” He slowly turned his eyes to her, and for a moment, something like clarity shone in his eyes.  


“JJ...” and then it was gone. He stopped looking at her and started looking through her.  


“Go get the others.” Morgan told her in a low tone. “I’ll look after him.” Knowing better than to argue, JJ headed right back into the station and to the team’s conference room.  


“JJ, did you and Morgan even leave?” Hotch asked as he heard the telltale click of her heels coming back to the room. JJ ignored the question.  


“Spence is outside. Just...sitting right outside. Right now.” It was a rare thing that Prentiss, Hotch and Rossi moved so fast in synch, and JJ would have appreciated witnessing it if she hadn’t been so preoccupied. When they got back outside, they found that Morgan had not succeeded in managing to get a response out of Reid, who continued to stare through everything, clearly lost in his own mind. Carefully, the others joined Morgan, who was less than a foot away from Reid, though he looked reluctant to move further.  


“Reid? Can you hear us?” Hotch asked once he was in position next to Morgan.  


“Hear a lot. Screaming and whispering and talking. Hear a lot.” His voice was full of preoccupation, a tone they were not unused to hearing from Reid, though he sounded more distant than usual. Reid continued not to look at anyone in particular, though his eyes moved around the semicircle of his friends. It was almost like he sensed they were there, but could not see them.  


“Spencer are you okay?” Rossi asked. Reid closed his eyes and remained motionless. Then he opened his eyes, and they looked clear for the first time, clear and innocent as he blinked several times. Then, hesitantly, he reached forward and poked Hotch’s nose. Hotch jerked back a bit at the unexpected contact, but this did not deter Reid. Brow now furrowed, Reid moved over and gave JJ the same treatment. Then Emily.  


“Everything okay Reid?” Emily asked gently, reaching toward Reid’s hand which was just hanging in the air there, while Reid stared at it and her, completely baffled.  


“You’re real?” he asked, genuinely surprised. He cocked his head and frowned, his tone making him sound impossibly young. “I’m sorry, it can be so hard to tell sometimes, when the assimilation is strong.” He turned to Morgan, grabbed his hand, squeezed it. “It isn’t your fault.” He said. Then he forced himself into a standing position, swaying even as he clutched at the wall beside him. The others all abruptly stood or straightened and did so just before Reid collapsed, falling into himself before bouncing off of the wall and into the team. Rossi and Morgan were the ones to grab him. They tried to call out to him but Reid was long gone. His mind was on another world, a different place with the same people.  


.......  


_What you thinking about, Daddy?” Reid asked and snapped his bubblegum._  
 _“My endgame,” Hotch sighed._  
 _“I don’t have one. Doesn’t seem to me that you can really plan for anything in this world. It’s all random.”_  
 _“Like the people you shoot.”_  
 _“Yup, though it’s funny. You’re the only one I didn’t kill. Everyone else got a bullet first time which is highly improbable,” Reid shrugged his shoulders and kicked his feet up on the dash. “Like we were meant to be together. It’s what made me laugh so much.”_  
 _“I remember. I thought you were fucking crazy,” Hotch said with a smile._  
 _“I am.”_  
 _“Whatever, kid. I don’t want to drive straight. Give me a winding road to take.”_  


.........  


_“What can I say? You’ve got me clean and I’ve reverted to being a germaphobe.” Hotch just smiled broadly and squeezed in next to Reid across from JJ who was settling Henry into his high chair and giving him a dinosaur colouring sheet while they waited for dinner._  
 _“What you got there, buddy?” Hotch asked the young boy._  
 _“Dinoswar,” Henry held the scribbled over page up for inspection._  
 _“It’s a triceratops. They lived during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period, around 68 to 66 million years ago in what is now North America. The term Triceratops, which literally means "three-horned face", is derived from the Greek...” Spencer rambled and everyone at the table stared at him including Henry who seemed enamoured with the young man’s voice, which petered off as he realised that he was being stared at._  
 _“He’s so lifelike,” Emily joked and prodded at the young man’s cheek which became impossibly redder._  


.......  


_A not so good world, but not an unhappy one, where the people were kind or he killed them, where there was a warm feeling and he still had what he should have. But it was different. Some endings aren’t meant to be happy._

CMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCM

They brought Reid into the conference room and laid him on the couch. Reid clung onto Rossi in his pseudo-sleep, causing Rossi to begin muttering in Italian as he tried to get Reid to release him. Reid looked sort of sad in sleep.  
“He’s going to need a doctor.” Hotch said as he studied the light burns on the side of Reid’s head.  


“We’ll have to bring the doctor here though Hotch.” Prentiss said. Hotch turned to her. “If he’s anything like the others, he’ll panic as soon as you mention taking him away to a doctor.”  


“He’ll probably be calmer and easier to question too.” JJ added.  


“Plus, He’ll want to stay here.”  


“Stay.” Reid’s hand shot out unexpectedly, grabbing onto Hotch’s suit jacket. They all turned to him. His eyes were distant again, but he said the word insistently. “Stay.” He tugged hard on the jacket. “Stay here.”  


“You can stay here Reid.” Hotch related. “But now we’ll have to find a doctor to make a house call.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first time that I have used anything from another fanfiction, and as promised, I must send you to [Hitchin' A Ride](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1053434/chapters/2108652) by Tifer14 an excellent work, though it is definitely a Hotch/Reid fic. I would like to remind you that I did receive permission from the authors before I did this, and all of their work will always be shown through the italics as not mine. I have no more claim on them than I do criminal minds.  
> Also HTML format SUCKS


	7. Unexpected Problems

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I took so long! The good news is that this means a longer chapter, and I'm hoping to get in another chapter in sooner than normal to help make up for it. College just really got in the way for a while. I hope you're all excited for the next chapter.

The doctor they called had treated the other survivors as well, and seemed to agree to their original assessment that Reid was not physically affected other than his mind, which could not really be confirmed without a scan of some sort. When they mentioned this, Reid attempted to bite them, so they refrained from repeating it within hearing distance of the patient. Since all three of the other victims (Sid Kennedy and George Corners having been released to their families only the day before) appeared to be fine without any other medical intervention and given the reaction of George Corners at his family's attempt to get him into a hospital, which had ended with six injured hospital personnel and George running away to one of his friends, it was safe to say it'd be easier to let Reid get what he wanted.

So the team took what they could to make Reid comfortable as they tried to figure out what the hell they could do. Questioning Reid worked about as well as it had with any of the others, in that it really didn't work at all. They answered every question with a riddle or nonsensical response, making it impossible to figure out what they meant. So for the most part, they just left him in the room, listening whenever he spoke but mostly just keeping an eye on him.  
"Why are so sad Spence?" JJ asked. He was frowning at the wall opposite the couch, just to the left of the case board.

"Me and Hotch died. And Gideon. Lots of other people too. Sad day." He said, causing the whole room to stop what they were doing to stare at him.

"I'm sorry, but what?" Morgan asked, turning fully to face Reid, who had not moved in the slightest at this confession.

"We died. It happened. Not here, not now, not even soon. In a distant nowhere." Reid didn't seem to be inclined to speak anymore for quite a while after that. The rest of them tried to ignore the feeling of unease that radiated from each other. Reid had taken again to looking off in the distance, ignoring everything around him. It didn't appear that he had any idea what was going on, though he sometimes reacted to sudden movement, when one of them got up for another cup of coffee or for some other reason, his head would swivel toward them, eyes focusing for no more than a blink before they went distant again. Sometimes, he would look like he was about to say something, but for the most part, he remained silent, save for random exclamations and thoughts that seemed to make no sense.

In the meantime, there were going through everything, from the timeline of the disappearances to the backgrounds that Garcia had dug up on homeschooled girls. They had managed to narrow down the pool for the girls, but they all knew there was no guarantee that she would be in there.

Worse, it was clear that the rest of the police station was getting antsy. They had been there for about a week and they hadn't even been ready to give a profile yet. They would have to soon, and there was the pressure of doing that as well. They worked well into the evening, finally deciding that it would be best to retire for the night as Reid appeared to be falling asleep in his chair.

"So... are we going to send Reid to sleep in his own room?" Morgan asked when they arrived at the floor where all their rooms were. They all exchanged looks before they looked over at Reid, who was happily dozing against the wall.

"It would probably be better to have someone close to make sure nothing happens to him, especially in his... current state." Rossi said.

"Well who is going to watch after him?" JJ asked. From this point, a quiet but fierce argument began over who would be in the best position to look after Reid. As it turned out, Reid wasn't going to let them make this decision and instead he just got up from leaning on the wall and draped himself across Emily, who stumbled a bit at the unexpected weight ending the conversation abruptly.

"Well it looks like Reid knows where he wants to stay." Rossi seemed more amused than anything else.

"It could be a problem letting a female and male subordinate sharing a room." Hotch pointed out one of the arguments he had been using before as the others had attempted to say he should stay with them.

"Nothing is going to happen Hotch." Emily was barely managing to right herself under Reid's form, as he couldn't decide what was comfortable and therefore seemed to be fonder of the idea of just rearranging himself every time he almost got comfortable. "Reid, stay still for a minute." He finally acquiesced, though he seemed to be itching to move some more.

"I doubt anything is going to happen, and Emily can take care of both herself and Reid. Reid is certainly not in any state that he could try anything that would actually hurt her. We don't have to mention this in the reports." Rossi pointed out, tired and hopeful they could finally go to bed.

"Are you sure Prentiss?" Hotch asked.

"Yeah I'm sure Hotch." As though to prove it, she pulled Reid off of her and into a more manageable position, causing Reid to pout.

"Fine. But we are definitely leaving this out of the reports."

"No complaints from me." Emily muttered. Dragging Reid to his room, she grabbed his toiletry bag and found Reid picking out his own clothes (for which she was thankful) before they headed back to her room. Reid immediately went to the bathroom, taking his stuff out of her hands and coming out only a few minutes later dressed for bed. He took the left side and just tucked himself into bed. Emily found herself very amused by this. When she returned from showering and changing, she found that Reid had fallen asleep sprawled across half the bed.

He reminded her of a child, she realized, a sweet child. It was the same way all the others had acted, as innocent and as aware as a child, addressing the things they thought they knew with absolute certainty. She went to sleep on the other side of the bed, somehow managing not to bump into any of Reid's limbs as she settled in, setting her phone alarm and drifting off to sleep (barely remembering to keep the bathroom light on so that it wouldn't be completely dark).

She woke to the very unsettling sight of Reid staring at her. Trying to push the uneasiness that it generated aside, she smiled at him. "How did you sleep, Reid?"

"I slept well enough, though the assimilation was slower than it should have been. Hopefully it will not affect the assimilation today, or else I will not be able to focus on the now for very long." Reid's eyes slid out of focus for a moment, before he brought himself blinking back. "I will help anyway I can." A shadow of Reid was shining through. "However... the assimilation is so strong, I doubt I'd be able to help during one. They are so real... it is happening, but it isn't." As though to prove his point, Reid fell to silence, his eyes going completely distant, and his body merely laying there, breathing barely evident. It was more than disconcerting, it was scary. If Emily didn't know that all of the victims went through these phases and came out of them just fine, she would have been panicking.

She got out of the bed and began to get ready, her eyes constantly shifting over to Reid as he lay there, remaining unmoving. When she was ready, she gently shook him. "Reid, it's time to get dressed." She said quietly. To her surprise she found him getting up, going to the bathroom and coming out dressed. His eyes were still entirely unfocused and he appeared not to really know what he was doing, his actions entirely automatic. Emily tried not to feel too unnerved as she shot off a text to Hotch telling him they'd be down in a few minutes ready to go. Just as she sent the text she was startled by Reid's hand clamping down on her shoulder. Biting back her first response, she turned around and looked at him. His eyes were still distant, but his expression showed that whatever he was seeing, he was fighting, if only for that moment.

"He's going to kill you. He knows you're alive and he wants to kill you." Tears sheened Reid's eyes for only a moment before the moisture was blinked away and he face went slack again. She knew it was useless to try and get an answer out of him. Trying her very best not to react, Emily waited a minute to ensure she still had her own composure before she bothered to try and move Reid. As she expected, he was utterly compliant as she guided him to the elevator and then to the hotel's breakfast room. He gripped her arm tightly as they walked, and she found a plate made up for her and one for Reid at the table where the rest of the team had gathered. As soon as the food appeared before Reid he began to eat, while Prentiss tried to settle enough to eat.

"So how did things go last night?" Hotch asked, his eyes picking out the tension that Prentiss was pretty good at hiding.

"Fine. He slept like a rock." She answered honestly, spearing a piece of egg and watching as Reid shoveled food into his mouth with no type of discrimination. It was a little weird because that meant he was eating egg and orange at the same time, though it did not seem to bother him an iota.

"And this morning?" Rossi seemed to have caught onto whatever Hotch had.

"He was...aware for a little bit. He said the assimilation was slow last night and that it might affect the assimilation today, and that it's so strong he might not be able to help, which he said he would try to do. Then he said it was happening, but it wasn't."

"That makes absolutely no sense." Morgan shook his head. "That unsub really messed with his head."

"Well it tells us what Spence thinks is happening." JJ pointed out.

"Only barely." Morgan disagreed.

"Nothing else happened?" Hotch asked, his eyes on Prentiss, who opened her mouth to answer only to be interrupted by Reid.

"He's coming." Reid had stopped eating, and he turned towards Prentiss, his eyes going huge. "You lied." Then he grabbed her arm. "He knows and he is angry. He will take you from us and you will let him because he will threaten us. You love us too much. He will take us from you." His eyes burned into hers. "Lauren Reynolds is dead. Lauren Reynolds is dead." He brought a finger to his lips. "And so they fall, one by one, Lauren Reynolds is dead." His hand dropped away from her and he returned to his meal, eyes going distant once again, and the rest of the table was in stunned silence.

"Prentiss?" Hotch asked, his eyes flying to her once he realized Reid was not going to say anything else. She was staring at Reid, paler than bone with eyes wider than he had ever seen on her. For such a composed woman, she had never been more frightened or shocked looking.


	8. Unexpected Thanks

Emily Prentiss was a strong believer in letting the hell go of your past, and she didn’t think she’d ever hear the name Laura Reynolds again once she let that life go. It was a job, really, and you couldn’t let your job affect you when you were in the CIA. Not that way, anyway. She had to let it go. And she had. But Reid’s words knocked the wind right out of her sails, ripping away her composure. When she heard Hotch call her name, she forced herself back into her calm composed self. Reid wasn’t in his right mind. He couldn’t possibly know. Not really. He was saying all sorts of nonsense. It was nothing to be worried about. She ignored the fact that she didn’t even believe herself in favor of turning to Hotch with a far more composed face.  


“He just surprised me, that’s all.” She said calmly. “A strange thing to hear so early in the morning.”  


“That didn’t mean anything to you?” Morgan asked suspiciously.  


“No, of course not.” She responded. Reid, this time, graced them with only silence, choosing to gulp down his sugar filled coffee before he bothered with anything else. She spent the rest of the meal attempting to brush off their worries and succeeded by the time they were ready to go to at least get them to stop mentioning it. During that time, they managed to get Reid to say a little bit more about the girl, enough that they would actually be able to complete a preliminary profile, much to their relief.  


CMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCM  


“So how’s my Junior G-man?” Was Garcia’s first question upon being called that morning.  


“Penelope...!” Reid leaned forward towards the computer screen where she was looking out at them. He kept leaning forward until his eye filled the screen. “Kittenwar is the place you are looking for.” He informed her. She stared at him, then typed the address in, looking at one of her other screens.  


“You’re right! Thanks Pumpkin, that’s been bothering me all morning!” Reid merely blinked, before retreating to the couch with his second cup of coffee.  


“So, Pretty Boy here is about as good as can be expected, as I’m sure you can see.” Morgan mentioned dryly.  


“Poor Junior G-man!”  


“Garcia.” was all Hotch said.  


“Oh, of course. I’ve been looking into disappearances of girls under the age of ten for the past eleven years as bossman here asked, and let me tell you that is some depressing stuff. Discounting runaways and those later found, there are still thousands of girls and without further disruption there is no way to narrow down the list.”  


“Black.” Reid said suddenly, causing everyone to turn to him. His eyes barely focused, he tugged at his own hair. “Black.”  


“The girl has black hair Reid?” JJ asked, and Reid nodded.  


“Black black hair, and she’s so small.”  


“Garcia, separate out the girls with black hair who are below four feet. That should be a good start. We can expand the pool to girls who are taller if we need to, but if Reid thinks she’s small than she’s probably not that much taller than four feet.” Hotch ordered.  


“Right away bossman. Garcia over and out!” Garcia cheerfully ended her side of the call and the rest of them got ready to give the profile they had finally managed to gather, leaving Reid in the conference room where he lay on the couch. When everyone had arrived, they began.  


“We have a team of unsubs.” Hotch began. “The main unsub is a girl under the age of ten and over the age of seven. Her intention is not to hurt but to help.”  


“The other unsub is an adult, most likely a man, but don’t discount strong females either.” Rossi said. “It’s someone who the girl considers responsible for her, and she trusts them. As far as she is concerned, she is always safe in the hands of this person, and they have the ultimate authority over her.”  


“Whatever process is performed on the victims, it gives them the same mindset of the child, wanting to be protected by family and clinging to those people.” Prentiss announced. “This tells us that the girl likely has a great fondness for family, and it is likely she has lost her own, which is why she feels the need to help those who have what she doesn’t.”  


“She’s trying to help people by kidnapping them?” One of the officers asked.  


“To her, there’s nothing wrong with it.” Morgan announced. “The other unsub is her caretaker, and has instilled in her the thought that this is normal, acceptable behavior. She’s just a child who is doing what she’s told.”  


“She’ll be very obedient towards the older unsub, and she will consider their word law. She will not question what they say very often, and she will likely come off as a well-adjusted, docile child. Look for single guardians of a young child who are not directly related. He may be an uncle, a distant cousin, an old family friend.” Hotch added. Rossi picked up after him.  


“She is as much a victim of the unsub as any of the others, as she does not understand what she is doing and has been raised this way. It is likely that the unsub took her away from an abusive situation to help foster a more favorable relationship with the girl.”  


“Now that the girl has found what she believes to be the issue between her and helping people, there will be an increase in the amount of victims if we do not stop them soon.” Prentiss finished. As the officers dispersed, the team hoped that would be enough to get them through this before the girl really did start taking more victims.  


“She has to rest.” Was the first thing Reid said to them as they returned to the conference room.  


“What was that Pretty Boy?”  


“She has to rest. It’s very draining to perform this service, and she is very young.” Reid got comfortable on the couch, now that his message was delivered. “She won’t be able to do anything but sleep for at least 24 hours.” Settling in, Reid began his usual staring at the board as his eyes glazed and his mind began to fall away. At first, he thought of the assimilation the night before- Rossi had been comforting him after a horrible nightmare in a far off yesterday that hadn’t happened but still could- before he fell into a new assimilation.  


CMCMCMCMCMCM  


_“Conference Room 2 is where you need to go!” Reid told the stern looking man with a boyish grin. ‘Keep it together Spencer, c’mon, they don’t know you’re acting, keep it together...’ He repeated the mantra in his head._  


_“You.” Penelope said as she made her way to the front of the group. “Are the most adorable thing I’ve seen all year.” She told him bluntly, holding back the urge to hug him._  


_“Aw, thank you! I get that a lot.” He confessed with a small blush dusting his cheeks. “Don’t know why, though.”_  


_“Can you lead us to the room?” Hotch cut in before Garcia could list every reason she found this kid cute._  


...  


_“Really?” Reid sniffed, somewhat dramatically. ‘By Freud’s disproved theories! Are they really buying this?’ he thought, somewhat incredulously. ‘I’m the one acting and even I think I’m overdoing it.’_  


_“Of course.” Penelope cooed, ruffling his hair. “Right Morgan?” she asked him with a smile that clearly said: ‘Agree or I will photo shop you into several provocative poses.’_  


...  


_“I’m impressed.” Rossi told him seriously._  


_“Eh? About what?” Reid tilted his head to the side and made his eyes go big. The girls fell for it immediately but the men just rolled their eyes._  


_“I’m impressed at how far you’re willing to go to change the subject. That is how you throw people off your trail, isn’t it? Just by yacking off their ears until they have to leave or forget what they wanted to originally ask you: simple but effective. I commend you, but I’m afraid your efforts are useless, so you might as well just save your breath.”_  


...  


_There was love there, beautiful and fresh and clean of true disaster. There was pain, yes, there was tragedy, but it was not as much as it had been, and it was so much easier to recover. Life went on and it was beautiful, and he had the team to thank for it, for the acceptance he found._  


CMCMCMCMCMCM  


Reid became aware again hours later, when lunch had come. They had gotten him a salad and a sandwich, as well as a coffee made the way he liked them most. He was midway through the salad when he became fully aware again, blinking himself back and looking around, garnering the attention of the others.  


“Everything alright Reid?” JJ asked him calmly.  


“Thank you.” He said, surprising them all. They exchanged puzzled looks, knowing it was unlikely Reid was thanking them for the food, which he seemed to have stopped eating.  


“For what?” Prentiss asked.  


“For letting me in. For asking me to join the BAU even though I lied to you about who I was.”  


“When was this?” Morgan asked, temporarily forgoing telling Reid that it was Gideon that had brought him to the team.  


“In a tomorrow that never was, where I never went to the FBI academy. You found me and you invited me in. Thank you.” Hotch, sitting not very far from Reid, was the one to lean over and squeeze the hand that was not holding a fork.  


“You’re welcome.” Was all he said. This appeared to be all Reid needed, as he beamed at Hotch before continuing to eat, answering the questions the others asked about the assimilation with more ease- and a bit more of their Reid- than he had before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's the next part! This has the lovely story [Dumb and Ditzy by TimelessTears](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7402720/1/Dumb-and-Ditzy) as well as a mention of [Rossi to the Rescue by United profilers](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6938442/1/Rossi-to-the-Rescue).


	9. Unexpected Overload

“So the assimilation gives you memories?” JJ asked. 

“Of things that could have been, that could be, that never were but almost could be.” Reid confirmed. 

“How is that even possible?” Morgan asked skeptically. 

“It is because of her. She wants to help us embrace the things we are missing, to avoid the sadness.” 

“How does she know who to ‘help’?” Rossi asked, looking as though he was certain Reid had been brainwashed. 

“I don’t know.” Reid. “She just knows. I imagine that he helps her.” 

“He?” Hotch cut in. It was the first time that Reid had described the older unsub at all. 

“He.” Reid agreed, nodding. “I don’t really remember him, much.” He cocked his head, frowned. “Big man. Burly. Strong. The pixie and the giant.” Seemingly satisfied with this description, Reid began to take interest in what JJ was eating and he appeared to be entirely done with answering questions. The others filed it away for thought later, but for now they had to continue on with what they had managed to gather. 

“So what have we gathered about our other victims?” Hotch asked. 

“Well they all appear to be getting better.” Prentiss said. “The families all report a marked improvement in the reactions and mental clarity. Which means that whatever is done isn’t permanent. Their bodies and minds do recover.” 

“Of course we do!” Reid suddenly interrupted. “Why wouldn’t we?” None of them really knew how to answer that, so it was probably a good thing that Reid didn’t wait for an answer before deciding he apparently wanted more coffee, and he immediately got up to fulfill this need. 

“So we know we have a man, who is helping a little girl and feeding her to believe she has supernatural powers, giving her victims to test out whatever this magical cure is on them, accidently killing a few in the process.” Rossi summarized. “What does he tell her about the ones that don’t make it? Does she know she’s killing people?” 

“It could be one of the ways that the unsub manipulates her.” Prentiss pointed out. “Guilt is a strong motivator.” 

“But if she believes she’s killing people instead of helping them, wouldn’t that dampen her resolve?” Morgan asked. “Especially since she’s a child.” 

“She could have been taught to believe that death is an acceptable failure by the unsub.” Hotch pointed out. “If she was young enough it wouldn’t have been hard to get her to approach death with a lack of empathy.” 

“Death is bad.” Reid spoke up as he sat down on the couch. “No dying. She doesn’t like dying. She only wants to help.” Reid cocked his head, frowning. “I don’t think... no, she doesn’t know. He protects her. He wants to use her. She doesn’t understand him, not really. She merely accepts him.” He shook his head. 

“He isn’t good for her.” He finished. The others were silent for a moment, waiting to see if Reid would add anything, before continuing their briefing as Reid settled on the couch and fell asleep. The memories came rapidly, the assimilation speeding up hectically within his mind. 

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_“Jesus, Reid.” Emily whispered in a strained voice. “Your dad sold you to a pimp?”_

_“To keep himself from being killed. Yeah, pretty much.” Spencer forced himself to turn again, to shrug as if it was no big deal.”_

_“But you were only fourteen!”_

... 

_With more grace than he ever showed, Spencer stepped forward, one arm tucked behind his back. He bowed gently, as he’d been taught, and then held his left hand out, palm up, towards Emily. He guessed her to be the only one who might be familiar with this style of dancing because of how she’d grown up in a political lifestyle. It would be easier if he had a steady partner who had a general idea of the moves._

_Surprise lit her eyes. But she placed her hand gently in his, automatically stepping up against him, their bodies pressing flush against each other. His right hand came up to rest on her shoulder blade and her hand rested on that arm. Then, with a small smile shared between them, Spencer began to dance._

... 

_“You know,” Reid said, “if you haven’t seen someone for almost twenty years, and they suddenly show up at your front door at four in the morning, I would think they would have a pretty good reason for doing so.”_

_“Except for when you accused me of murder,” his father said without looking back at him._

_“What?”_

_“You haven’t seen me in almost twenty years, except for when you accused me of murder a year ago,” his father said. “Or did you forget that little part?”_

_“No I haven’t, but that doesn’t change anything.”_

_“Yes, it does. That little visit of yours changed everything.”_

... 

_“Reid, what do you remember?” Hotch asked after a minute._

_Reid knew this question was coming, but he didn’t have an answer for it. “What day is it?” he asked. His question earned him worried looks from the two men in the front seat._

_“Saturday,” Hotch replied._

_“I... I don’t remember anything after leaving work yesterday,” Reid said as he realized he had no recollection of the past day._

_“Nothing?”_

_“...nothing.”_

... 

_He heard JJ scream and he turned around just in time to avoid Tobias Hankel. Just in time to see one of the dogs tear into JJ’s neck. She hadn’t had much of a chance, the darkness had been against her and she hadn’t reacted fast enough. His own cry of pain was barely released before the dogs turned to him. Before they could attack him, he received a blow to the head and he blacked out._

... 

_It was a whirlwind of times and places and things that happened. Overwhelming feelings of pain, shame, grief, loss, fear, pleasure, confusion, happiness, they ran through each memory to the point it was hard to put the right emotions with the right scenes. Everything was muddled and it hurt hurt hurt-_

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Reid was crying, and he was desperately looking around for someone. Who he was looking for was answered with an extremely desperate cry of “JJ!” The whole room had stopped to watch Reid, and JJ came in hurriedly, to find Reid sitting up on the couch looking around desperately for her. She wasn’t expecting him to launch himself at her and bury his face against her neck. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” He was sobbing, large heaving breathes came as he cried. Baffled, she held him against her and made shushing sounds. 

“It’s alright Spence, you don’t have anything to worry about.” 

“You died.” He sobbed into her shirt. “You died and it was my fault.” 

“I’m not dead Spence.” She tried to sooth him. “I’m right here.” 

“Another you had to die so you could be here.” He said. He knew it to be true, his gut burned with it and the tears kept coming. “I’m sorry.” 

“It’s okay Spence, I forgive you.” JJ managed after a moment’s stunned silence. Sleep claimed him again shortly after, tears still falling down his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter fought me tooth and nail. But here it is, and I hope you enjoy it. The fics used were, in order:  
> [Past and Present](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8215962/1/Past-and-Present) by cr8zymommy  
> [Ballroom Dancing](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8077494/1/Ballroom-Dancing) by cr8zymommy  
> [Father Figure](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5778263/1/Father-Figure) by purplerayz  
> [Someone You Trust](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5927071/1/Someone-You-Trust) by purplerayz  
> The last bit is simply a little tidbit from my own mind of an alternate way The Big Game could have gone. As always, permission was granted by the authors to be used in my fic.


	10. Unexpected Insight

After Reid’s outburst, they were hesitant to leave him alone for any period of time, though he appeared to still be mostly sleeping, surprisingly enough. He did not move very much, did not even twitch most of the time beyond solid, steady breathing. He seemed strangely peaceful, and unknown to them, he actually was. Though assimilation was still occurring, it was milder and thankfully happier. 

The investigation, overall, was not going well. They were stuck. Despite the fact that they were receiving phone calls from family members of the victims all the time, had re-interviewed the victims several times, they had barely gleaned much more than Reid had been able to give them. They didn’t have answers, they were running in circles, the locals were getting antsy in ways that just didn’t make for much cooperation in the force, and it seemed there was some hesitation about keeping Reid around. The lingering looks some of the officers sent their way easily sent hackles raising within the BAU, though they were good at hiding it. So long as none of the locals thought it was a good idea to antagonize them or Reid, the BAU couldn’t really take action against a bunch of tension and not so friendly looks. 

What they really needed was to get out of this place. They needed to solve this case, and yet it seemed it would be one of the most annoying ones they had had in a long time. 

Eventually, they had to leave to go and investigate more things, conduct more interviews, leaving JJ in charge of the still sleeping Reid. JJ stayed with Reid for over an hour without leaving at all, content to complete her work before she ran into an issue. She needed to talk to the press, in front of the station, _right now_. None of the others had returned, so that meant she had to leave Spence alone. She didn’t want to, but she couldn’t just not talk to the press. She did have a job to do. 

She debated for a minute before finally relenting. She’d only be gone five minutes, tops, as she wasn’t allowing questions and was only making a quick statement. The officers may not have been friendly, but there was no way they’d be able to get away with hurting Reid, as there were several officers who at least had that much pride in them, from what she’d seen. Besides, she’d be back very soon. Reid would be safe enough for five minutes. This wasn’t like Hankel. She did one last check on Reid before she left the room, closing the door behind her. It was during that time that two newer officers came into the room. 

“This guy is supposedly a genius, and yet he gets caught by the suspect after being here only a day and a half?” the taller of the two officers said as they ogled Reid as though he were some sort of tourist attraction. 

“The BAU really isn’t that impressive,” the other observed. “I mean, they haven’t done any better than Sutcliff did. I don’t know why the chief thought he needed them.” 

“Especially with this one. I mean they got one of the crazies right here and they can’t even solve the case.” 

“You are foolish to think anything is so simple.” 

They both jerked with surprise as Reid spoke, his voice harder than they had ever heard it within their short acquaintance. Reid’s eyes were sharper than they had been since he’d returned, and he looked like an avenging angel, even from his awkward couch angle. His eyes seemed to burn with an inner fire, though he did not move at all. 

“That which comes will not be simple, that which is can never be certain. Time bleeds faster with each moment and you are not as young as you once were.” Reid’s head tilted with his eyes still wide and unblinking, and the two men were frozen, disbelieving and strangely enthralled by Reid’s eyes. “You are foolish and have not learned. Life has come and it has gone around you, and you have not seen. It is angry. The longer you go without learning, the higher the price you must pay, or perhaps the price others will pay for you. 

“We pay our prices, and even the prices others have wrought. That, unfortunately, is the nature of such a life. Remember, for every time you should have died, you could have died, you could have lost, you could have rid yourself of something or gained something, there is always another world where it happened. There is a world where you die as a child and a world where you die as a foolish teenager. There is a world where you put the people you love in danger and a world where you have no one you love. Remember fools, that nothing is as simple as it seems. It is deciding the outcomes that deserve to be in a single universe.” 

Reid’s eyes closed, and the two men felt themselves released from whatever kept them from moving. They wasted no time in getting the hell out of the room, passing JJ as she came back, both pale and confused, they shoved past, leaving a puzzled JJ behind. She looked in the room, and Reid appeared to be in a deep sleep. 

She tried to see whatever spooked them, but she didn’t see anything different. Cautiously she returned to work, to find she was bothered by the rest of the station which kept looking over with slightly horrified faces. Why they were doing this, JJ had no clue, but the reason had only served to confuse her even more. 

“He’s creepy,” one of the officers said when she finally came out to demand why they were doing this, “spouting crazy nonsense about realities and stupid stuff like that.” The officer tried to sound arrogant and confident, but the effect was ruined by his shaking hand and the high octave of his voice. 

“Spence said that to you?” JJ asked skeptically. Reid had barely said two words- if that -to the locals (save Sutcliffe) even before he’d come back. “Why would he say that to you?” the man merely shook his head before another officer called him away. JJ watched him go feeling as though she’d missed something important. 

As the rest of the team returned they all wondered about the change in atmosphere. JJ told them what she’d been told in response, which only served to confuse them more. Reid, apparently determined to be a mystery, simply slept on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While this is admittedly more of a filler chapter, it was a necessary addition, and since I wrote most of it while puking sick I wanted to get it out of my drafting now so that I can try and forget about how sick I was yesterday. Next chapter I plan to start wrapping up the kidnapping plot, which means yes, the unsubs shall be caught soon, never fear.


	11. Unexpected Results

Reid had remained sleeping for another hour after they had all returned, before waking up and startling them all with a loud tumble to the floor.

“Reid, are you alright?” Hotch asked as he pulled Reid gently up from the floor. Reid nodded, and for the first time in days, he looked almost like himself.

“I think... I think I can lead you to them. I just need...” his eyes went distant for a moment. “The distance is little at the moment. He is heading to a place not far from here. If we leave now... we can find him.”

“Are you sure Reid?” Morgan asked, surprised by the sudden change in Reid’s demeanor.

“Do you not wish to check regardless?” Reid countered. It was the first time Reid had really been himself since he had returned and the others were all stunned by it. Reid gave a wry smile. “We need to hurry. I won’t be able to hold onto this clarity forever. We’ll also miss our chance if we don’t move quickly.” They agreed to leave, alerting Sutcliffe and heading out, with him and another officer in toe. Reid ended up in the van with Hotch and JJ, as they headed for the unsub.

“How do you know this?” Hotch asked him.

“There is a universe in which we have a different experience with this unsub. The two universes cross at this time- that is to say, they become paralleled in both action and position- and so the unsub will be there if we move quickly. As for the girl, she’s at the man’s house. As soon as we identify him, we’ll be able to get her. The path diverges after that, so I can’t be much more help, unfortunately.”

“Why are you talking so clearly all of a sudden?” JJ asked.

“I’ve managed to incorporate the current assimilation. My mind is usually entirely enraptured in what it’s experiencing, and I’m unable to differentiate between what is real and what is not. The assimilation is so similar at the moment that it doesn’t matter what is real and what is not- both things are occurring in almost exactly the same way. It isn’t nearly as taxing to try and communicate with you like this.” Before any more questions could be asked, Reid pointed at one of the buildings a street away. “There, that’s the man. He’s about to abduct another.”

The man was lurking in an alleyway as a woman made her way to her car. She was fiddling with her car keys as the man came up behind her, and immediately Morgan, Rossi, and Prentiss came around and called out for the man to put his hands up. The woman jumped, made a noise nearly a scream as she whirled around and spotted the man behind her. She pressed her back into the car and stared wide- eyed at what was going on around her. Morgan cuffed the man as Reid, JJ, and Hotch came up on the scene, Sutcliffe and the other officer coming right after.

“Is this the guy Reid?” Morgan asked, pushing the man towards the dreamy looking Reid.

“Yes,” he spoke clearly, surprisingly so. For once, Reid’s eyes were focused. He turned to the woman at her car and said simply “you are safe.” Before he made his way back to the car, ignoring everything and everyone else. The rest of the team dealt with the arrest and procedure while Reid slowly sank back into his own mind, which was riff with painful possibilities.

He was glad they had listened, glad that the path had diverged this way. The only other way the path was willing to turn was one where that woman died. At the same time, he grieved. In the other universe, parallel to this one, she did die. He had learned that death was never really evaded. Choice was never really what it seemed. Yes, there was choice, but each choice impacted _everything_ , in far more worlds than this one. Death was inevitable, mistakes unquestionable. Once he was able to focus longer, it would raise some interesting philosophical questions.

 

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“Oscar Davis, currently using the alias of James Adams, who is a former carpenter, of all things. He’s wanted for kidnapping Paisley Henderson. He’s had her for nearly three years. Originally raised in Alabama, her parents died in a fire. Her guardianship was supposed to go to her Aunt but before the Aunt even came by, Oscar Davis swooped in and took her away.” Garcia reported as they gathered in the observation room. “She was three at the time.”

They had already picked up the little girl, who had been busily eating a pancake at the kitchen table when the police entered the house, an hour after arresting Davis with a warrant in hand. She hadn’t even flinched as she informed them that she wasn’t leaving until she had finished her breakfast. They had placed the girl in one of the interview rooms, because she had started complaining about how loud everything was and it seemed to be the only room where she didn’t complain about a headache.

“So far he hasn’t admitted to anything. Hasn’t even asked for a lawyer yet.” Morgan frowned at the man in the interrogation room. “He still thinks he’s in control, at least to some extent.

“It doesn’t really matter if we get a confession,” Prentiss pointed out. “We’ve got him cold on kidnapping Paisley, and can use the evidence from his residence to prove he kidnapped the others, was training that girl to kill people for him. He’s going down regardless.”

“It’s the girl I’m worried about,” Rossi admitted. “She doesn’t even seem interested in what’s going on.”

“She’s what? Five? Six? I think she’s just bored.” JJ said, studying the girl across from them. Paisley did indeed look extremely bored, and was kicking her legs back and forth with her cheek laying against the table facing the door.

“That’s not what I mean. She’s got a long road ahead of her, unlearning all the things he taught her to do.”

“We still don’t even know for sure what she did,” Hotch reminded him, “We haven’t been able to figure out what these processes are yet.” There was a moment of silence.

“Where’s Reid?” JJ asked. Which caused the whole room to stop. Even worse, they were answered by the door to the interrogation room closing.

“Hi!” Reid said. Half the team looked ready to run out and grab him.

“Wait,” Hotch ordered, as he looked at the little girl, who for the first time, actually looked interested in the proceedings.

“Hello! How are you? Are you assimilating well?” She smiled at him, and he smiled back.

“I am! Thank you. I understand the gift you gave me. I do appreciate it.” Reid leaned forward and took her hands. The girl easily leaned forward and intertwined them.

“I knew you would be the best!” she practically shouted. “The others weren’t able to handle so many memories at once, but I knew you could! I knew you’d be the most impressive!” She grinned at him. “You’ll be even closer to your family then before.” She told him. “And that means you’ll be happy. I’m glad you’ll be happy. Aren’t you?”

“Of course I am. But what about the people who weren’t able to handle it?”

“He took care of it.” The grin was gone now, replaced by a slight frown. “Whenever they got too weak daddy would make sure to take them away so he could make them better. I didn’t see any of the failures after that. He said they were okay, so they were okay.” The childlike response was immediately taken in by the BAU. The child may have committed half the crime, but she hadn’t understood what she was doing.

“Why me?” Reid asked. “How was I chosen?”

“Oh! I picked you!” She was back to grinning, swaying in her excitement. “He takes me around in the car, and I pick the people who speak to me.”

“Speak to you?”

“Yeah, I always pick the ones who are really loud to me. I don’t know why. You were loud to me.”

“Loud?”

“Loud here.” She pointed at his heart. “The colors go all wrong and I hear everything sideways, and that’s how I know who to pick. You were very loud and the colors were starting to get black. I can’t help people who are black yet, I’m too young. I can help people who are almost black though. I can do that.” She smiled happily up at him, radiating innocence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The case is finished, but the story is not. I'm thinking that I won't let this go on for too much longer, but there are several plot points- and at least two more stories- that I need to incorporate before I'm willing to call this a done deal. It shouldn't be more than 20 chapters in total though. I'm leaning towards fifteen, but that could just be me being hopeful. 


	12. Unexpected Freedom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second to last chapter is here, thank the lord, thank Jesus, thank Markiplier's livestream to which I am currently listening to, thank every deity you know- _it's almost over._ I'm probably going to get started on the last chapter as soon as this is finished posting, and as such will be posting the very last chapter soon, as long as I don't run into writers block. *crosses fingers* here's to hoping I'll have this finished before mid May.

They stayed at the station a little while longer, wrapping up the details of the case, talking to the Aunt who would be picking up the girl, about the sort of therapy the girl would need, and the rest. Detective Sutcliffe was eager to thank them for their help in closing the case, though they felt a little uneasy giving it. They’d done very little to actually apprehend the unsub. They returned to the hotel in mixed spirits to discuss what to do with Reid.

“We can’t just take him back and leave him once we get off the plane.” Morgan said, observing Reid who was looking at Hotch’s suitcase as though it held the answers to the universe.

“I can take him back to my place,” JJ offered, “I know Will and Henry won’t mind, and I do have the space.”

“I’m not sure that it’d be good to have him near a small child right now.” Rossi said, as he too observed Reid. Reid did not seem bothered by the amount of eyes that were trained on him.

“Henry would probably expect a playmate, and I really don’t think he’d understand why his Godfather couldn’t play.” Prentiss said with a smile for JJ. JJ sighed but nodded in acquiescence.

“I’ll take him to my place. There aren’t any children around and I can take care of him for a couple days.” Rossi said.

“Are you sure Dave?” Hotch asked, bringing Rossi’s gaze away from Reid. Rossi nodded.

“Someone has to look after the kid, and you’ve got a kid yourself, and none of the others really have the space. I don’t mind. Well, not as long as he goes back to his own house eventually.”

“The other victims have recovered, so he should recover soon as well.” Prentiss said, though there was unease in them all.

“Hopefully,” Hotch agreed, “Now everyone get some sleep. We’ve already got these rooms for the rest of the night and I’ll take care of Reid.” The others argued- mostly JJ and Morgan, and then, mostly for form as both had already had Reid sleep in their rooms. Hotch kindly but firmly kicked the rest of his team out of his room only to find that while he had, Reid had disappeared into his bathroom. Hotch used that time to get his pajamas out and make sure the rest of his stuff was packed.

Reid came out of the bathroom freshly groomed and slightly glassier eyed than he’d been twenty minutes before, and he settled himself on the bed while Hotch went into the bathroom. While he got ready to sleep, he thought.

Hotch was concerned. Reid was the only one who hadn’t managed to get back to normal. All of the others- even those taken after him- were quickly recovering.

Paisley had mentioned it was a ‘side effect’ of her change of venue. “I can’t focus so well in a new place, and I have to keep the assimilation going or else they start to forget.” She’d said when they’d finally gotten her comfortable enough to talk to someone other than Reid. “It is an awful lot to remember, and they only hold it all for about four hours, or something? Then I have to feed them a bit of my power to keep it going, which I can do anywhere- anywhere at all!- but it takes a lot of focus, and now that I’m here, it’s a lot harder to focus with all the loudness and the bright colors- so I’ve let some of them go. I imagine they’ll be forgetting rather quickly.”

True to the child’s word, many families were reporting the improved condition of their family members. Reid however, remained the same. In fact, he seemed to be getting worse. Reid hadn’t even been coherent after he’d finished talking to Paisley, and he’d seemed to revert back to when he’d first arrived at the station. It was strange and it worried Hotch more than he wanted the other’s to admit.

“I have to keep the assimilation going or else they start to forget.” “I knew you’d be the best!” yes, Paisley had said those things... and now Reid was stuck in an even more intense ‘assimilation’ than he’d been in before, Hotch was certain.

Reid, for his part, was basically going through a crash course on six or seven different universes, some more similar than others, and he found it harder to breath at times. It was so difficult-

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_“Reid, did you decorate the place?” Aaron asked, though he could already guess the answer._

_“Yeah.” The young man nodded._

_“The whole floor...?”_

_“No, of course not.” Reid chuckled._

_“I didn’t think so. Who else-”_

_“I decorated the entire building!”_

_..._

_“Want to hear something that may surprise you?”_

_The young doctor shut up, now facing the veteran profiler. “Uh, sure.” He replied hesitantly._

_“I don’t like driving either.”_

_Reid was indeed surprised, Rossi could tell that much. He was almost gaping at him, and it was a little unnerving._

_..._

_“Well, sometimes, people who were bullies as kids become criminals as adults.” Reid explained._

_“And?” George sounded bored and completely uninterested._

_“And, you know what happens to criminals, right?”_

_“They go to jail. Where else?”_

_“Actually, not all of them go to jail.” Spencer pointed out._

_“Like I care.” George mumbled._

_“Some of them who run away from the police end up with guns and weapons pointed at them. One of those bullets can cause a person to lose a lot of blood. Thus, they can be killed from it.”_

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-and it wasn’t getting much better. Why did the universes clash and why did they crave his attention so? Why couldn’t he let them go? He wanted them to let go...

He dreamed, that night, and Paisley sat before him, no longer hidden, though there was something about the pallor of her skin that spoke of illness.

“I’m alright,” she said with a waved hand and a weary smile. “It is just a lot for me to do, to focus on, and I’m not used to being moved around so much.”

“Why are you here?” Reid asked, and her smile slid away a bit.

“They are saying strange things to me. I do not like them. You are happy, right? Your family is treating you right and you can _see_.” She leaned forward with intensity in her eyes, and it made her look even sicker. “You know things you did not before. You have grown, just like they say you’re supposed to.”

“Not everyone wanted your gift. Not everyone understands. You can’t just give your gift to people. You have to let them make the decision on their own.”

“People don’t always make the right decisions,” she said, frowning at him.

“No,” he agreed, “but you have to let them figure that out on their own.” Paisley stared at him for a little while longer, a little girl in a psychedelic atmosphere and a plain blue dress.

“I guess,” she said with a sigh. She looked away and Reid could feel himself slipping away, little by little. When she returned her gaze, spoke again, there was something lost and infinitely small in her voice. “I’ll let you go soon. I just want... I want to finish helping _someone_.”

It was not like waking up, it was like watching a dying TV. The picture began to fade and flicker, the colors began to soften and fade, and the sound seemed to have been shot entirely. Then, with no more warning than that, the image of Paisley’s sad face simply disappeared as the dream died around them.

And Reid woke to sunshine he could barely see, in a bed he couldn’t really feel, and it was like he wasn’t really alive at all.

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Reid was practically glued to the airplane window, and none of them could get him to move since he’d sat down. The others weren’t sure what to do, and Reid took the choice away from them by making it clear that he wouldn’t be moving. The assimilation was twice as fast, twice as hard, and staring out the window was about all Reid could do. He barely felt the hands that placed themselves on his arms and tried to pull him away when they landed, but this time, he allowed them to move him. He was in a car, he was in a house, he was in a bed... he couldn’t get much more than that. He’d probably eaten, done other things, but he couldn’t remember them, and for days his mind was consumed by the last of the universes which he was to know of.

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_It started slow with Hotch as well as Garcia and JJ. Even Elle was eased into this new thing slowly, although Hotch doubted she was even aware of it. Gideon seemed immune. _

_..._

_As unit leader of the BAU, Aaron Hotchner knew he would have to stay objective... If he couldn’t stay objective, then he would be pulled from the BAU and reassigned. Hotch loved his job. The last thing he wanted was reassignment._

_Fate would have it, he loved his team more._

_..._

_“Don’t you feel it? That agent friend of yours is one too.”_

_“One what?”_

_“A monster.” Timothy let his head fall to the table. “I could hear them, in my mind. They kept talking to me. Your friend – I can feel him in my mind. It’s like he’s snooping around. I just wanted them to stop. They wouldn’t stop! So I made them.” He looks up at Morgan, a hopeful expression on his face. Whatever he is hoping for, Hotch doubts it is the rage he sees._

_..._

_Never does Rossi believe that Reid is a threat to them. Reid hadn’t wanted to hurt them. He only stopped them the only way he knew how, then took care of the problem the only way available to him. He knows Reid fears being seen as a monster. That’s not what Rossi wants to talk about though._

_..._

_Jason Gideon watches from a distance. It’s been years since he’s set foot in DC, but his mind actually felt clear for the first time since the incident, and he needed to seek out his old team. Needed to make sure they were doing okay without him. Now he stands on the other side of the street, watching as they leave the restaurant, and he can see the changes... Gideon still has that sense that something is wrong. It’s never anything he can put his finger on, nothing his profile skills can explain – it’s an instinct, one that tells him there’s something innately wrong with a group of people who can go all night, never speak a word, and yet seem to say everything in silence._

_..._

_“The team comes first, Will.”_

_Will let her go then, feeling like he’d been slapped. The team comes first. On a subconscious level, he’s always known it. He’s always known he came a distant second to the team, that JJ would walk away and leave everything if they asked her to._

_..._

_“Come after my team again, and I will give that flash drive to your bosses. I will personally make sure you lose everything that you have ever worked for.” ...satisfied that he’s made his point, Hotch turns his attention to Gideon... “Come near Reid again, and Rossi will shoot you. I’ll bury the body.”_

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Reid wakes up, and for the first time in too long, he is entirely himself again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I borrowed from two fantastic authors this time, [United Profilers](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/1505683/United-Profilers) and [shadowblade-tara](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/1184270/shadowblade-tara). The former has written quite a few stories for Criminal Minds which i have put in the first batch (specifically A Father's Love, Decorations, and Driving Cars and Disliking Technology), and the latter has a series called Shadows Within which is phenomenal and is what the second batch is about. I hope you enjoy their stories as well!


	13. Epilogue

Reid woke up and finds himself in a place only vaguely familiar, but thanks to his eidetic memory he knew he was in Rossi's house, and that settled him a bit. The sun was shining quite a lot, filling the room despite the curtains in front of the windows. If he had to guess, Reid would peg the time at about noon, though he was disoriented enough he couldn't be sure. It was strange, like being in a coma (he'd been in one once, he was not pleased to have a near repeat) and he was trying to regain his mental bearings. The house was quiet, but it was also huge. He'd have no idea if Rossi was around until he checked.

It took a few minutes for Reid to get out of the bed, clueing him into the actual condition of his body. He was stiff, he felt like he'd barely eaten and he was thirsty. He wondered what had happened since the last time he could remember. Carefully, he made his way downstairs, moving through the hallway he had only been through once before (that he remembered, at least) and towards the stairs.

He heard movement, the sound of kitchenware as he got there. He wasn't sure what to make of it when he ran into an older woman he'd never seen before cleaning the kitchen.

"Oh, Dr. Reid, You're awake!" she exclaimed in accented English. Italian accented English if he wasn't mistaken. "You sit down and I'll fix you something real quick. David said you haven't gotten much chance to eat lately, and I believe it! Skinny as a twig you are." The woman chattered on as she made Reid a sandwich and heated up some sort of lasagna dish, and Reid managed to get out of her that he'd been out of it for nearly a week, that he'd been on medical leave and had a cascade of visitors consisting of his team and Henry, Will and Jack, and that Rossi was already aware of his being awake and had apparently texted saying that everyone was coming as soon as the workday was over. Reid could see why Rossi kept this woman around- she sure knew how to multitask, and multitask well. After he was finished eating and the woman left, it was a difficult few hours trying to flex and stretch his muscles without causing himself injury. Eventually he gave up and instead went looking for something to read to occupy his time. Reid was very grateful when the team arrived.

"It's good to see ya like yourself again pretty boy." Morgan said as Reid greeted them as he usually did- whilst surrounded by seventeen or eighteen books he'd picked up from Rossi's bookshelves. Reid was only temporarily incapacitated by Garcia and JJ's bear hugs as he put the book down.

"It's good to feel like I'm myself again," Reid replied with a weary smile.

"So no more 'assimilations'?" Hotch asked, and Reid shook his head. The others began to sit down in the chairs around them as Reid spoke, none of them too far and all of them seeming to want to be within an arm's distance of him.

"I don't think so. The last thing I remember before the final assimilations, Paisley had projected herself into my dream and was talking to me."

"She projected herself to talk to you? Are you sure it wasn't just, you know, a dream?" Rossi asked. Reid shook his head with a touch of annoyance.

"I'm quite sure, and there is more than enough evidence that dream projecting is an actual phenomenon. In fact-"

"Reid, as fascinating as that is, could we just get back to the dream?" JJ asked, not unkindly, shooting a glare at Rossi. Reid nodded.

"Right. So she said she wanted to help at least one person. I think she's beginning to understand, but well... she is still a child. She said she'd 'let me go' soon and I think that's why I was assimilating for so long."

"She was rushing the process so you'd be yourself sooner." Prentiss said, speaking slowly as she thought about it. "She wanted to help you the way she thought was good, but because you probably pushed it she realized she would have to make it go by faster." Reid nodded.

"Wait, it would have taken even longer if she hadn't?" Garcia exclaimed in shock.

"I would say so. She did give me a lot of 'assimilations' to do, and it took time to see those worlds play out, to  _be_  those people. It was a unique experience I hope to never have to deal with again, though I'll likely be dealing with it for a long time now." Reid looked at his team- his friends, his family- very seriously. "Now... we need to talk about what I saw. I have no doubt some of those things I saw were possible, if nothing else. I'm... worried. There was a lot of pain in our future. We have the power to stop it, or at least to control the damage, but we need to be honest with each other. We need to tell each other our secrets."

"What, like right now?" Prentiss asked, looking more than a little alarmed.

"There's no time like the present, as I was very aggressively reminded." Reid responded matter a factly. There was silence for a moment. "All of you, have to decide now, if you're willing to do this. How much do we trust each other? How much do we consider each other family?" He looked at all of them, and they looked back. Morgan and Prentiss looked uncomfortable, JJ and Garcia a little worried. Hotch was perfectly calm, and even seemed to be slightly pleased. Rossi seemed entirely unperturbed.

"I'm fine with it," Rossi said. "A chance to change a bad future... well it doesn't come around every day."

"No it doesn't," Hotch agreed. "I'll stay." the  _I trust my team_  going unspoken. Reid nodded to both of them and looked at the others.

"Oh Junior G-man, you don't even have to ask." Garcia said with a smile. JJ's smile was a little more uncertain, but it was there. She merely nodded, a hand going to squeeze Reid's leg. They all turned to Morgan and Prentiss. Both looked very uncertain, and Reid knew why this was. Prentiss was thinking of what he'd said, of Ian Doyle and what that could mean for their family. Morgan... Morgan was wondering if he could trust anyone that much.

"I already know," Reid said, causing both to look at him more than a little warily. "Not all of your secrets, certainly not, but enough. Enough to tell you we will not abandon you. That we are here for you and that you do not need to fear us. We can help. Together we can do a lot of good." He looked appealingly at them both, and then there was nothing but silence. Finally, Emily nodded, a sigh racking her body and a mutter of something unintelligible while Morgan just nodded, not really looking at anyone. His body was stiff and he looked uncomfortable, but he didn't leave, and that was enough.

"Anything specific you have in mind?" Hotch asked Reid now that that was settled. Reid sincerely thought about it for a moment.

"Emily should go first. She should tell us about Lauren Reynolds. But first..." Reid took a deep breath. "I should tell you about what I saw."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is it. No seriously. **I HAVE NO INTENTION OF CREATING A SEQUEL.**  
>  I will tell you that they do listen to each other, that things do change for the better in some ways and for the worse in others. Who lives, who dies, what happens- I'm leaving that to you. I'm sure you could all discover endings to satisfy you more than I ever could.   
> So if it comforts you more to think that at that moment, Reid went on a rampage and killed them all, a suggestion given to me on how to end this by my boyfriend's brother, than you may do so.   
> I'm attempting something new for Rise of the Guardians based on a prompt, and I have been trying (and failing, mind you) to write a companion piece to Not A Perfect Mother. I've got a crossover that's never been done before (it isn't that exciting but it hasn't been done before that I can find) and about a ton of Code Lyoko fics to complete. I'm tapped out. I'll get back to Criminal Minds if I can, but don't expect that for a while yet. I've got a ton of other things I want to work on first.


End file.
